Was I supposed to wait an entire day before posting this? WELL TOO BAD. Now that I’ve finished I agree with all the commenters from day one who just wanted us to read faster so we can talk about everything. So here we go:
This post is going to be spoilerific for every single aspect of Mockingjay. Don’t read this until you’ve gotten through the acknowledgements and know who Suzanne Collins wants to thank the most. Okay? Okay.
NOTHING BUT SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP:
Soooo many things to touch on here. Before going into the whole Peeta thing again, though, I just want to say
GOD DAMN IT, FINNICK!!
And then there’s a whole list of god damn its that could go out to Coin and Prim and Beetee and on and on. But their motivations all made sense.
So back to the hijacking and the way that would inevitably lead to Peeta and Katniss being together. I didn’t see The English Patient, Erin, but that’s because I could tell it was gonna be weak sauce from the trailer alone. So I agree that she had to do *something* to make it confusing and get Peeta into that state of kind of hating Katniss. But it would have been sooooo much more interesting if there hadn’t been venom involved, just actual doubt.
The only thing that would have worked was the “Peeta as potential weapon” device, but there was never any real tension in that for me, because clearly it wasn’t really going to come down to that.
Although, speaking of what things came down to, was anyone else a little bit disappointed by the way it ratcheted up at the climax and then just fell flat? Katniss was just kind of wandering in the streets, then there was a collection of kids, then some bombs, then… we wake up later. Then Katniss assassinates Coin and… we wake up later. Then she goes to sleep again, and then Peeta’s there, and then… we have an epilogue.
BUT WHAT AN EPILOGUE!!!
I mean, in actuality, looking at it as the end of a beloved trilogy, the epilogue kind of blew. But it’s exciting to me, because it proves what I’ve been saying all along: choosing Peeta = choosing a lame ass life of sucking.
I mean I get that rationale that Katniss needs a dandelion or something, but I still think that it’s sort of sad for her that after everything she’s been through she just hangs out back in the Shire making a memory book like she’s Bilbo Baggins or something. She *has* that fire, damn it, and instead of getting to go out and do something else to make the world a better place she’s just hanging out with KIDS THAT SHE NEVER WANTED TO HAVE until that stupid whiny baker talked her into it.
Again, go back and read that first paragraph: IT TOOK HER FIVE, TEN, FIFTEEN YEARS TO AGREE TO IT. That is some PUSHY baking business. Now she doesn’t even care about their names, just calls them boy and girl (to be fair, though, Suzanne may have run out of crazy sounding names, and the FYA Hunger Games name post probably wasn’t up when she was writing that). La la la, save the world, hang out in a meadow, always worried that the girl is going to be scared of mommy’s night terrors.
Meanwhile, who knows what Gale’s important job in District 2 is? It’s tough to say, but you can be damn sure that after his plan killed Prim and took Katniss away from him forever he’s not interested in restocking the nuclear defense system. I bet he’s using his hunting instincts to build a new system of moving necessary supplies from district to district, and applying what he knows of human behavior to create a strong new economic model that can thrive under a true democracy. In other words, GENERALLY BEING AWESOME.
I’m also a little disappointed that he wasn’t mentioned at all in the epilogue. Real or not real as Katniss’s love for Peeta may be at the end after that love creeps up on her, Gale was still her best friend. I hate it when romantic entanglements make people lose their best friends, and after a few years I’m sure Gale would be over her and happy with someone else who crept up on him. Couldn’t they meet up after a decade, go hunting, and exchange stories? Although I’m sure it would have been heart breaking for Gale to see the shell she became thanks to a lousy choice in a lover…
I’m glad we didn’t get an epilogue for Annie, though. That would just be tooooo sad.
Ultimately, though? Yeah, TEAM GALE all the way.
After he was gone, I kept going back to my Gale = Han from the original debates. And if Katniss had stayed with him, she could have truly become Princess Leia, using the fire that burned within her to ignite a passion for rebuilding from the smoldering ashes that used to be Panem. Helping the rest of the population, all of whom no doubt had suffered losses just as tragic as her loss of Prim, to see that there was a point to fighting on, because we have to fight on, because as soon as we stop fighting we turn back to bread and circuses – BREAD and circuses, you crazy baked goods fans and citizens of the Capitol – and we leave a gap for the next President Snow to walk back through.
The girl who was on fire would not be content to just let that fire spread, either, she would be the Girl Who Became a Phoenix, and she would have lived a life full of meaning and fulfillment instead of just sitting in a meadow every day, trying to remember some times when she saw people displaying goodness.
Seriously, is Suzanne Collins a Mormon as well? Or do YA authors just hate women? Because for an author who created a character as awesome as Katniss, she sure did consign her to an old school woman’s role straight out of the Mad Men era. I think it’s safe to say that the best thing the movie studio can do now is cut her off, hand over the entirety of the creative control to Joss Whedon, and let him turn Katniss into the badass that she really needs to be.
And I think this is what I was always arguing for when I started being Team Gale – Katniss’s ultimate fulfillment. Yes, I framed most of that debate in the terms of sexual fulfillment, but there’s so much more to it than that. And a life spent hunting with your best friend, seeking out meaning in the world, and living up to your potential is so much more fulfilling than a life spent with a fricking dandelion.
Also, I still say that the sex would be way better with Gale. But that’s what happens when you pick the one who dotes all the time; that’s all they know how to do. “Are you okay, honey?” “You sure you’re okay? What can I do to help?” “Don’t worry, it’ll be okay as long as we have each other.” GAH.
All right, fire away on everything you want in the comments.
Erin, I trust you’ll take my hurried words here and be more eloquent as always. But I hope you don’t feel it necessary to cling to your so obviously misguided opinions on Peeta just because you were wrong before. It’s okay to acknowledge that that was a mistake, you didn’t know how meaningless life with him would be for Katniss, and to congratulate me on my victory.
“I want you to rethink it and come up with the right opinion.”
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I totally agreee!!!!! I’ve always been Team Gale, not because there’s anything wrong with Peeta, but because a) Katniss doesn’t deserve his undying loyalty..he’s too much like some besotted puppy for my liking b)Gale and Katniss are both messed up, with the whole loss of their fathers and the whole rebel against the capitol thing..theyre perfect for each other!
Peeta is actually recovering from his ordeal, even though everyone predicted that he wouldn’t…and now its like the new, cold Peeta is pretending to be the old sweet Peeta…Peeta wouldn’t have forced her to have kids, he’d have kissed her feet for agreeing to marry him..he was that in love with her…all the characters are unrecognizable :’(
I like your ending much better, Katniss has always been the girl on fire..as they noted in the book, all her best moments were totally unscripted..its only when she quits considering what everone wants and does her own thing that she is truly the mockingjay, the girl on fire, the heroine. Its sickening seeing her reduced to this shadow of her former self..Gale never coerced her into being against the capitol..when he suggested it she disagreed..until it was too much for her to bear, she made the decision on her own! I hate that Gale gives up on her..HOW COULD YOU ABANDON KATNISS????? Also how could her mother abandon her???
I fully expected Katniss to have some active part in the newly formed government..I mean I didn’t expect them to crown her 17 year old self as the queen or anything but I expected her to be given a position as an advisor or a war general or something useful! Not go rot in the middle of nowhere reduced to making babies for the rest of her life. If I’d gone through half of what she did, I would NEVER want to bring kids to the world! I’m going to ignore everything starting from the explosion that killed Prim…I’ll take your ending instead.
I absolutely HATED the ending. I completely agree with you about the climax. It just stopped! What a way to completely ruin the flow of the book. And don’t get me started on her voting for the new hunger games, and how she seemed to completely forget about Gale! Why would you choose Peeta??? I just thought that the last 100 pages could have been a lot better. It had so much potential.
i haven’t made it through all of the comments, so pardon any potential redundancy, but can we talk for a second about the propos? i mean, you’re in a war zone, and you want katniss et al to go wandering down a supposedly ‘safe’ street just so you can film footage of them doing faux-damage? REALLY, people!?!?!? because that obviously wasn’t going to go badly…
i felt bored near the end of the book which is a true, true shame. i just wish i weren’t blueballed at the climax so much. BIG EXPLOSION –> weird morphling dream sequence –> boring anorexia time in isolation –> boring sitting by the fire time in 12 –> end. underwhelming.
also, in retrospect, “blueballed at the climax” was probably not my best turn of phrase.
On the contrary, I think it has a nice ring to it. Well done.
Agreed.
AHHHHH!! I have just finished Mockingjay as well!! Why did Finnick have to die?!?! I loved him so much. I wish that I could trade his death with Gale’s.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Gale too. Or, I did in the first two books. But let’s face it. In the end he has a fancy job in District 2. Cool for him.
But Finnick!!! He had a life with Annie and thier child!! Now half-crazy Annie has to raise the kid by herself!! It’s so sad!!!!
Here’s why I think everyone likes Finnick better than Gale or Peeta. He’s the most normal.
Gale is overly hostile. Peeta is overly nice. Finnick is perfect. He is hot. He is normal nice. He gets upset over things that anyone woulod get upset over such as the love of his life being held captive by the enemy. He is every girl’s dream guy. Or, at least mine.
In short, I hate that Finnick died. I hate how Gale doesn’t have an epilogue. (What the heck happened to him?! Fancy job and…? What?!?) I like that Peeta ended up with Katniss. I’ve always been on his team.
“I think it’s safe to say that the best thing the movie studio can do now is cut her off, hand over the entirety of the creative control to Joss Whedon, and let him turn Katniss into the badass that she really needs to be.” <<< YES! This equals WIN.
I'm Team Game forever too, and AM NOT HAPPY WITH THE ENDING. That epilogue should not even be in the book – I want to rip the pages out. I mean, really? Baker Boy forces her to have babies and do nothing but grow old and watch her nameless children go to school? WHAT. EV.
Life with Gale would have been so much better. She'd have had purpose, and a reason to carry on, not to mention some kick ass hot time in the sack.
I give up with final books in series that I adore. They do nothing but disappoint me and make me mad. MAD.
GAH. I think SCollins has been spending too much time with SMeyer.
I can’t agree. At least not about Katniss giving up her “Flame” so to speak. I believe that all the fire she had left after everything she had done for her country disapeared when she saw (as she once said) “The only person she felt for sure she loved” -Prim- die right in front of her. I wanted her with Gale but after reading this I think she ‘needed’ Peeta. I’m not saying she loves him more than Gale but I think by the end she was ready to put aside her fire and be at peace and Peeta was the only one to give her that, he balanced her out and put her on what little bit of level ground she had left. Gale is a fighter and so was Katniss. But I think she was done fighting. She needed peace and quite. She not only needed it she deserved it. I understand your view though. It was very emotional and HATED when Finnick died that was just WRONG! but *shrugs* what can you do. it was still a great story.
Very disappointed in the ending as well, but couldn’t quite put my finger on until you mentioned the whole action-wake up later, action-wake up later thing. Aha! How does such a strong character like Katniss end up a doormat at the end of the trilogy? Grr…
Reading this was therapy! I’m so happy I wasn’t alone in my extreme dislike of the ending. Katniss lost me when she said “yes” to the Hunger Games. Couldn’t we at least have gotten a better explanation as to why? And then it was just all down hill from there.
I really wanted Katniss to pull a Kelly Taylor “I choose me.” But barring that I was with Gale all the way. Her life with Peeta was even lamer then I thought.
Still some of my favorite books, I’m just going to ignore everything after Prim died.
Oh so totally agree!!! Team Gale all the way and no mention of him at all in the epilogue was so disappointing. And her with Peeta? Ugh. I’ve started to cringe whenever someone quotes the ‘Real or not real’ ‘Real’ on twitter. She was the girl on fire for a reason. Not cause someone else put it there but because it was in her. But with the loss of Prim she becomes nothing. Gale would never had forced her to have kids and I totally think after a few years they could at least be friends, going out hunting and such. Which, why doesn’t she appear to do that in the epilogue? Where did our hunter Katniss, girl on fire, disappear to? Very sad. I love Gale something fierce and I was totally gutted at the outcome.
Very much agreeing with Henri. HG and CF were so immediate – you were experiencing everything on the front line with Katniss. Mockingjay was Katniss sitting around and being told by Gale/Plutarch/Haymitch what was going down. We’re told about – not shown – Peeta’s rescue, Cinna’s death, Snow’s arrest, Katniss’s trial and a whole lot else. It sometimes felt like the outline for an awesome book instead of being in itself an awesome book.
And yes, the epilogue was distressingly Harry Potteresque, but at least HP had the showdown of all showdowns before that – a worthy end to the series. The squad’s assault on the Capitol was super anti-climactic; the most detailed parts seemed to happen in Tigris’s basement. And what was up with that ‘Twilight tent scene’ conversation between Peeta and Gale?
I agree with the front-line thing – I really wish Katniss had been allowed to go on the rescue mission! That sounds like it would have been one of the more exciting parts of the book.
At least Harry Potter ended up with the girl everyone always knew he was supposed to be with: Ginny!
I just finished about 20 minutes ago, so I’m still trying to process the ending. But I feel about the same as everybody else. I’m not sure if it’s because the book was disappointing, or if I’m just extremely pissed that she ended up with that damn baker.
Going into Mockingjay, I honestly didn’t care about the Team Gale/Team Peeta thing. I just wanted to know how the thing is going to end. Ok, I cared a little. But I was maybe 51% Gale, 49% Peeta. Halfway through the book, I realized I cared a lot more than I thought, because I slowly found myself hating Peeta more and more. It was easy to see Gale’s degradation and distance from Katniss and his increasing devotion to the rebels (which I fully support and approve, by the way). Peeta’s mental state after he was returned just encouraged Katniss’s teary eyed “Oh! Oh my dear sweet Peeta! WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU?!” attitude. I could see where this was going and I was NOT happy about it. At this point, I was firmly camping out with Team Gale.
What I don’t understand was why Collins allowed Katniss to become this weepy shell of her former self. She wanted to kill President Snow right from the beginning, so seeing Peeta’s condition didn’t change that. If she really cared for Peeta, that should have fueled her bloodlust even more. The Katniss we know and love is filled with fire, not moping around empty houses and rooms and hiding in corners because she’s too sad to deal with everything. In the Games, Peeta was her grounding force. I get that. But in the Epilogue, she became so submissive to him that I just wanted to smack her.
So now we have to live with the fact that Panem’s symbol of freedom, hope, and victory settles for a life that’s safe instead of a life where she could actually be, you know, happy. And that just ain’t right.
So thank you, Henri, for saying everything I was feeling but couldn’t quite put into words.
Oh, my God. I loved Prim to death. (Bad choice of words…) When Katniss was talking to Buttercup I was crying hard core. And when Prim exploded? I was so devastated. She was a beautiful, smart, loving little girl that had the best qualities out of all the characters, and she dies. With her death, I came to an immediate conclusion: Katniss didn’t have to volunteer in place of Prim in the seventy-fourth Hunger Games because Prim just dies two years later. Katniss wouldn’t have been completely broken (having thousands of deceased names haunting her), Peeta and her wouldn’t have even spoken to each other, she would have eventually ended up with Gale (Gale admits he loved her six months prior to the Hunger Games), and Katniss wouldn’t have ever been the Mockingjay and the face of the rebellion. It was kinda of a “Well, I guess all that hard work for nothing,” sort of deal. And Finnick dies?! I loved that guy!! He was so charming and sexy and had finally got his beautiful/slightly crazy wife back and they’re going to have a baby–so much going for him. When Katniss threw her Holo in the sewer I kind of expected him to jump out and say, “JK!! Gotcha!” Man, he was so awesome… Now onto Gale. I was completely Team Gale, but I get how Katniss could never again not associate Gale with Prim’s death. And I wanted to take Katniss’s bow from her and shoot Coin myself for doing that. Such a shame too because life with Gale wouldn’t have been nameless kids and lazy days and shit but exciting, adventurous, and fun. And Peeta. He’s too nice. No one is that nice. And besides nice people are boring. Katniss was super exciting and super exciting people don’t sit around and make books about depressing crap with too nice people. But if I were her I would have made that book, too. ‘Cause that shit is sad and needs to be remembered. And at the very end of the book where her and Peeta are finally get back together, they could have had another one hundred pages dedicated to that but reduced it to three. I was like, “What? All that romance and Peeta this and Gale that, and you resolve it in three pages?” Extremely disappointing. I really wanted to know what happened to Gale, too. He was too awesome to just say, “He got a job.” Gale and her would’ve been perfect together because they were both broken and are so in tuned with each other (until Prim dies which screws everything up.) And I at least wanted them to still be talking to each other! It’s like she never met him, never sees him again, lost a life long friend. Also, that’s pretty messed up, Mom, to ditch your only living loved one, your freakin’ daughter, like that. And on an ending note, I want to comment on each book. HG was suspenseful and powerful. CF was scary and desperate. And MJ was depressing. Katniss becomes a shell of her former vivacious self and it’s just so sad. I loved Katniss so much because if anything, she was a fighter, and she gives up in the end. After that book, I went downstairs to see my family (’cause I’d been trapped in my room with my book all day) and my mom says, “I haven’t seen you this shaken up in years.” … But, hey, I’m super excited for the movie!!
This is a brilliant post! I agree with all that you said. I don’t post spoilers on my blog so this is great to be able to voice my frustration!
I am defiantly Team Gale all the way and I did not like the epilogue at all, except for the last line about there being worse games. It was all rolled into a nice little package with kids and happily ever after. Katniss was NOT happy! What a boring life she now leads with her nameless children that she doesn’t even want. She should have chosen Gale where the fire really was
What happened to the ending? Katniss just wakes up in a hospital bed and it’s all over. Where was the big fight where she gets to hit people with arrows make a stand, etc. Gaargh! Frustrating!
And Finnink! That just got totally glazed over. She spends the whole book making us love him and then in one line we are supposed to forget about him?!
Katniss saying yes to another Hunger Games?! Totally out of left field. I liked how she shot Coin though, the real Katniss was back, even if it was just for a second.
*Sigh* I like the Joss Whedon idea
I’m ambivalent. I wasn’t so much upset that Katniss ended up with Peeta as that it was inevitable that she choose anyone at all. I understand frustration with the ending (especially the action – break away pattern leading to the climax) but I thought that a satisfying ending would have been a sham. I think it’s authentic that Katniss is spent and that lives are broken. Life goes on, but no one escapes unscathed. For me, the most powerful thing about the trilogy was the lack of absolutes. No one, except Prim, is completely good or completely evil. Collins would have taken a lot of force from the book if she had allowed Katniss, the symbol of imperfect conscience, to truly live.
Also…did anyone else think that Buttercup was being set up for a Scabbers moment? I was totally convinced that Buttercup’s miraculous appearance in 12 and then the bunker was a mutt move for sure.
I agree with you about the whole Buttercup being a mutt but I don’t agree with ANYONE about Gale being with Katniss. I think Katniss doesn’t deserve Peeta’s kindness, yes, but she’s weak and I don’t think she could handle Gale’s fire. Every since they introduced Peeta in the first book, I’ve LOOOOVVVEEEDDD him! He’s so sweet and he’s liked Katniss for 11 YEARS!!!! Ans how long has gale liked Katniss??? ONLY A MEESLY 6 MONTHS!!! Peeta has shown dedication!!!! Even though Katniss doen’t deserve him, I’m TEAM PEETA ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Dying laughing at the Scabbers comment. It was just what I was thinking!!
Yeah, I WISH THERE HAD BEEN NO EPILOGUE. And, you know, you’re right. It’s kinda devastating that Katniss spends the rest of her life agreeing to kids she didn’t want and watching them play in the meadow or whatever, but Collins didn’t write it because she’s a woman and women=kids or nothing. She wrote it for the exact same reason JK Rowling wrote the stupid cheesy epilogue at the end of Harry Potter: these authors LOVE their characters and feel guilty as shit for everything they’ve put them through over the years, and they feel like the characters deserve a peaceful life after all the trauma–and they want the chance to see these beloved characters skipping in a meadow or smiling in a train station or whatthefuckever. And Katniss DID change the face and future of Panem by assassinating President Coin and insuring that District 13 wouldn’t become the new Capitol as it was headed, and it’s kind of hard to believe she’d be allowed to continue in a political role model after killing the president. No new president is going to trust her very much.
All that being said, yeah, Gale is definitely awesomer and stronger and more powerful than Peeta, and I DEFINITELY WISH THEIR FRIENDSHIP HAD CONTINUED INTO ADULTHOOD. It’s straight BULLSHIT that it didn’t, and that drove me crazy, because whether or not those two are meant to be together in a romantic sense, and I really don’t believe they are anymore because Katniss is just WIPED OUT and Gale will be burning for the rest of his life, they absolutely are meant to be together in a bigger sense, because that friendship/survival connection runs deep.
Also, Joss turned Buffy into the least feminist character ever by the end of the TV series. Thank god the comics are making up for that again.
I totally agree with your Buffy comment. To this very day, I have seen not even one episode of the final season – and I own the series box set!
and finally: BUTTERCUP FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND OH MY GOD FINNICK NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I can’t really get into Prim, for obvious reasons of being at work and therefore unable to sob audibly.
I hated this book! finnick dies! Prim dies! I admit i like peeta but having gale dissappear. And i lost track of how many times katniss ends up in the hospital! I was like just keep her there shes going to end up in the hospital again anyway, and the thoughts about suicide and all the main characters dieing or wishing they were died. ok i get the whole war thing, but what the crap! I felt so depressed in the end. I hated the book! Katniss wasnt katniss, and the whole thing were peeta hated her! Stupid! and did Finnick really have to die?!
Well this is what real war is supposed to be like): everyone dead or depressed. But I fucking freaked out when I was reading this in class! I accidently blurted out FINNICKKK, NOOO! and started bawling. D: I’m never reading it again.
I actually did cry FINNICKKK, NOOO!!! And then I cried for a while
This will probably not be completely coherent, I claim jet-lag, but I have a whole bunch of reasons why Katniss DID need to end up with someone, that someone specifically being Peeta. A lot of people are like “I’m totes sick of all of this romantic happy ending stuff in YA” or “why couldn’t she be like ‘I choose me’ and be all feminist about it?”
1. Choosing a male romantic life partner is not anti-feminist. It’s actually a relatively natural thing and certainly a thing that most women do.
2. Twilight ruined YA romance; let’s all be honest that people would be totally enthusiastic and unskeptical (that’s not a word, I realize) about the whole romance thing if Bella had half a spine or two brain cells to rub together or better yet, if Twilight never existed. Not to mention the world just being a generally better place.
3. It was part of her goddamn character arc. She was essentially friends with Gale out of a combination of happenstance and convenient proximity and mostly also necessity. I don’t even need to list all the ways Peeta draws Katniss out and leads her to her inevitable conclusions about the direction of her life because they’re pretty blatantly obvious. And the ways she draws him out, as well, though this being Katniss’ story, those are a little less explicitly laid out for us.
3. Back to her being friends with Gale out of necessity…this leads me to point out that Katniss has essentially chosen isolation and loneliness and being deliberately nasty and unloving as her defense mechanism in the face of her lot in life and the pain of losing people. That she ultimately admits to loving Peeta is essentially the whole point of her evolution. That she, in a some ways, CHOOSES to love him, or give in to her love for him, ya know? She admits that going it alone isn’t good for her or even what she ultimately wants. Especially after all she’s been through. It’s human to want and crave companionship, to accept help, to be vulnerable to loss. And ultimately we see Katniss become more of a human throughout the series. Because of that, I liked her best in this book in a lot of ways.
4. Also, to answer the ‘why do people in epilogues always have to have baaaabbbies’ question, let’s all examine the wildly obvious symbolism here. It was obvious in Harry Potter and it’s obvious in the HGs.
Als…all good points. Thank you for #1 especially. While happily ever after doesn’t HAVE to include a guy (or babies) it’s not anti-feminist to have that ending. Feminism is about having a full range of choices and going with what works for you. It should never have to be anti-male. That’s why I thought all the bashing of Bella after Breaking Dawn came out was so stupid(don’t get me wrong. She IS a dumbass). Whether you agree or not with how the story was written, it’s her right to choose her stalker vampire and have his spawn (I mean come on! If you can get past the fact that he’s a freaking vegetarian vampire then you should probably be able to get past the fact that she marries him at 18. It’s not supposed to be a life lesson; it’s entertainment.) Same with Katniss. She’s still a great character with or without Peeta and whether or not we’d make the same decisions she did.
Well, I also loved the fact that it took her a while to end up with Peeta. It wasn’t this “OMG THE WAR IS OVER SO WE CAN BE TOGETHER AND THAT WILL MAKE EVERYTHING TOTES PERFECT!” I loved the fact that SC made the point that love can and often does evolve very gradually and “creeps up on” one. I love the fact that the ending ISN’T happy. It ISN’T all ok, not by a long shot. But they do grow to have each other, and even THAT is by no means perfect, but it’s hopeful, it makes each of them better (not perfect, but better), and it’s, again, just so HUMAN.
I think the issue of love is explored frequently in YA because, let’s face it, parceling out those issues is a HUGE part of adolescence and early adulthood for most peeps. There’s a reason cliches are cliche. But really. Who ultimately finds their identity without the exploring love and relationships and coming to some conclusions therein?
Oh right, #3 number 3 (JET LAG! JET LAG!):
3. Also, how about the part where she sees a reflection of one of her pre-Hunger Games (well, pre-Quarter Quell and subsequent fallout) selves reflected in Gale and is horribly repulsed by it and doesn’t want to go down that path? That exists, then he indirectly blows her beloved sister to smithereens. Pretty big dealbreakers there. That, and it’s my personal opinion that relationships between people who were/are that similar or relationships with a person who mirrors back to you that which you are learning are your faults…those are the relationships that end poorly.
I cannot believe the ending!!! What the heck happend to Gale?!!!!! we never saw him ever again! he didn’t have an epilgoue!! she ends up with Peeta and gets Pregnant! UGHH
OMG, wow, commenting again! But I think I’ll be defending this book til the day I die because I thought it was amazing and I the more I think about it, the more amazing it gets.
Why all the hostility about babies? What’s wrong with characters having babies? Is this another thing that Stephenie Meyer ruined forever? Furthermore, have we all forgotten why Katniss was anti-baby? It’s not because she was actually anti-child. That can’t be the case…several points where she defends or protects or just plain loves them to death (Prim, Rue, etc). The reason she didn’t want to bring children into the world was because of the Games and because of the reaping. Explicitly spelled out in Catching Fire, I think? One of the books, anyway.
Annnnnyway, why the babies were important goes all the way back to the heart of the whole Gale-vs-Peeta internal conflict, which I think was also a necessary reflection of Katniss’ character arc, rather than just some self-indulgent random overly-dramatic-but-in-reality-non-issue that Suzanne Collins threw in to amuse herself LIKE SOME OTHER AUTHORS I COULD NAME. She thought she’d be with Gale because Gale was all she knew, but Peeta was the one who held her when she had nightmares, Peeta was the one who loved her for who she was – not a symbol or a rebel, but a girl who needed to be loved. When they rescued Peeta and we find out what happened to him, it BROKE MY HEART because it was the CRUELEST form of torture that Snow could dole out to either of them. Especially Peeta. To take someone good and kind and genuine and do that to him, take away the only thing he has, it was HORRID.
The point I remember the most was when Peeta was in recovery and he said to Katniss: “You’re a piece of work, aren’t you?” and she finally realized how much she’d taken his love for granted and how much she’d LOST. Peeta always knew just what a piece of work she was, but he had embraced it and moved past it to love her. Perhaps he even loved her in spite of it, because of it, who knows? And in this case, it was imperative and very, very necessary to show that Katniss had chosen to have not one, but two children later in life. It shows her love for Peeta and it shows that she is willing to take that risk, knowing what the worst of their nation can do.
Thank you! I love the book too, and get the frustration with the epilogue but also heartily disagree that having kids is a betrayal of Katniss’s character.
i haven’t read the 3rd book yet but peeta is the one that should be killed if i were to change 1 part about that book i would take peeta right out of it?
Oh em gee. Just found your site and about peed myself reading your take on Mockingjay. You win the internets, dude. This is SO win it’s not even funny. Mockinjay had such potential to be this kick ass book and I left it feeling unsatisfied. I closed it and literally thought, “I’ve had better.” Way to drive home the message to let your fire fizzle out and settle for mediocrity, Suzanne! WOO HOO.
Im kinda sorta team Peeta (dont hate).
But I loved you article and I agree that Katinss would totally like Gale more, But i feel Peeta deserves something after all he went through to help Katniss – and the fact that he truly loves her – a love that is rare.
I guess I’m a tad bit biased. I love Peeta. I love Gale. This book makes me so indecisive.
I agree as well! Hunger Games+Catching Fire = AWESOME. But Monckingjay??? LETDOWN! Ok, I won’t even go the route of Gale vs. Peeta because everyone will have their valid points on this…but SOMEONE, ANYONE tell me the point of their journey/mission into the Capitol??? It turned out to be so POINTLESS! I just felt like Collins gave up. They were treking through the sewers, losing people left and right, and for WHAT?! Nothing. She kills Coin, bravo! I thought here we go….and then she completely peters out again. So sad. For once I’m HOPING the movie ending is completely different from the book. I’m so depressed.
Don’t know if anyone’s said this above…but you put way too much importance onto Gale, and onto Team Gale. The course of Katniss’s life is not entirely determined by the man she chooses to marry. They don’t define her.
That said, Henri….I agree with EVERYTHING YOU SAID in your wrap-up review of Mockingjay. I felt exactly the same way about the book. KATNISS WAS ASLEEP FOR LIKE 90% OF THE BOOK WTFBBQ. Where was the kickass Katniss we knew and loved??
Y’know Katniss was kind of suffering from PTSD. That can kind of kick the kickass-ness out of a person.
I love you. TEAM GALE!!
Damn it-
It was like CRAZY WAR SCENE CLIMAX and then all of a sudden we had HURR DURR EXPLODING CANDY SETS MAIN CHARACTER ON FIRE, END OF STORY GOODBYE. I seriously should have stopped reading right then, the only part that I liked was when she shot coin. I was left waiting for both an explanation as to why she voted yes to more hunger games, and for a badass scene involving the dual-wielding of crossbows or kimber 9mms or something where she used ninja-vision to shoot people in her peripheral vision. I really hope hollywood can destroy the last 100 pages of the book and replace it with something cool in a movie. This was one of those series that left me thoroughly disappointed after the ending paled in comparison to the rest. It was sort of like hg wells’ time travel novel, the end was very rushed and boring.
i totes agree with you. seriously katniss was this stubborn girl with a rage ans was so different from all these other girls that authors make which are predictable characters but her personality died down in mockingjay especiall in the epilouge which is a totallt different character from the beginning.
i so thought they should have been together in the third book it seemed like collins was trying to find a whole bunch of things to not get gale and katniss together…i mean killing her sister…it was a fricken accident and katniss didnt forgive him whata jerk….he wasnt even mentioned in the epilouge prob. because he had a totaly awesome life like 100 times better than katniss
but i wasnt just mad about how they didnt get their love life but finnick and annie died..that was the best love story and suzanne killed him off….what the heck i mean havent you killed enought ppl…..i hate when authors cant think of a good ending so they try to make it unpredictable and kill off every fricken person…uhhh
all in alll mockingjay was a big fat dissapointment it didnt come up to my standards from the first and second book and i grew to hate a lot of the former characters except for- gale and finnick( sorry if i forget any1 else that should be on my non hate list
As a fan of the series i have been waiting for the 3rd and final installment of the hunger games trilogy for about 3 months let me quote mostly everyone who posted a comment here by saying the ending was terrible it left me disappointed i seriously spent a half sleeping half awake night thinking of y i was so disappointed and let me tell you i just became aware why after reading some of your comments first off let me start off by saying i WAS team petta all the way until the part were he trys to choke katniss after finding out that he was hijacked and probably would never be the same again i dropped him like a hot pancake and swapped sides i wanted her with gale the only way i would want petta and katniss together would be if somehow she would find someway to make petta go back to his old caring original self i thought we had a chance to see petta go back to his old self when katniss kissed petta i thought petta would actually come back to us but no he didn’t then that’s when i decided that i wanted katniss with gale with no exceptions i understand that she thinks gales bomb invention might have killed prim but he didn’t actually drop the bomb he probably didn’t even know that they planned to use the bombs in the capitol on the children and if he did he didn’t know that prim would be there so he should have kept fighting trying to get katniss to get over it but no instead he moves on and doesn’t fight he just takes some job in district 2 well let me tell you that even though he wasn’t mentioned in the epilogue we can all guess that after getting that “special” job he will no longer be hunting and probably settle down with someone himself and have kids and live a restricted life of no longer hunting which to me seems a sad fate for such a spirited guy and as for katniss to end up with petta the guy who is no longer the same and who still has to ask real or not real and to add to it she has kids which in the beginning of the series she said she never wanted to have kids and to reduced to sit at home counting the good things she has seen people do or watching her kids play on what they don’t know is a grave yard i hate that it was never said if petta changed back all in all i was disappointed by the book and hope that Suzanne Collins decides to right a sequel talking about things that happened in the gap between the fifteen years she had kids talk about her and gale reuniting and her mother coming and the results after they meet something happens that makes katniss needed to be the mocking jay and right of the after math of the rebuilding of the districts of katniss getting a real job as a general for the war and petta gets locked up to later be rescued and be back to his old self well it is wishful thinking but i just cant stand the way the book ended so many holes in the story
it should of ended shoot snow he has bomb in him that kills coin gale and katniss take over (and get married) and reshape panem and a 4th book of discoveries like whats outside of panem is it just the world or what and call it panem and beyond or something
Just to let you know… your anger completely discredits anything you said that may have been a good point. Your credibility is shot, and I will not be reading your reviews for anything. You can write a review for something you love without gushing and something you disliked without raving like a lunatic. Your Peeta hate seems to be a bit outrageous considering he isn’t real, and this is just a book.
But I have to ask… did we even read the same book?
I was Team Gale, but the fact is Katniss chose Peeta, and it took her time to realize that having kids would be okay. That they would not be taken at a reaping for the HG. Gale created something that killed her sister. I’m sure he had no idea it would be used against kids. And if he had, I bet he wouldn’t have made them. The epilogue was nice. It showed that after it all, their world had hope.
I apologize that passion and vigor somehow discredit writers to you. PLEASE don’t ever read my writing for anything again, even the rest of this comment.
Although to be clear, I’m not a reviewer; you’ll notice I didn’t give the book a certain number of stars or a thumb in any direction.
And to answer your question, we apparently did not read the same book at all. The copy you read seems to have had a much longer epilogue, and one where the writer (who must have been unemotional and perfect) expanded on the story of Katniss deciding to give in to Peeta’s will, and one where she actually made a choice instead of just ending up with the only dude who was around that was her same age.
That does sound like a better ending, though! You should share copies of your version online so people can get the real story…
Passion and vigor make for great book discussions!! That’s why I read FYA. Totally and forever Team Henri on this.
There are enough formally styled comments and reviews about books to last through the formation of District 1,113. Give me a pissed-off reader any day. I’ve thrown books against walls, cried and snotted on their pages, and laughed until I snort out brain cells. Books do that to me, and, thankfully, to Henri and other writers here.
Ditto exactly, Schuyler! I read FYA because I’m tired of reading book reviews that have no personality and I love reading everyone else’s opinions about books because they make me think even if I don’t always agree with them.
Team Henri all the way!
<3 <3 <3 This was so satisfying to read.
Anybody who has ever been through something traumatic with someone else knows how it brings you together. After the games, Gale didn’t have a shot, no matter how studly he was. Realistically, she would have gotten with Peeta immediately after the first book. Even more realistically, they would have eventually realized their relationship is based solely on the horrid experience they shared, and split up. But by then Gale would have gotten some other district chick knocked up. So she probably would have ended up alone. Which is honestly what I think a character like Katniss would have wanted anyway. AND how I think the Mockingjay should have ended.
Now THAT is a good ending
Gah, The first book was the best still, the entire series has gone very twilight. I really liked gale aswell. And I agree with all of you in saying that there were lots of oputinitys to make it better. The last 100 pages were very rushed. And it was slow in the beginning, I would prefer her to be out fighting, insted of doing stuid propos all the time… That was my favourite book series ruined!
I know!!! she was practically the whole story totally sedated or numb…at the end you ended up thinking….”*searching for the rest of the book* wait…what? that was ridiculous!”
Just a thing, But I thouht the whole thing was depressing, so my sister wrote this very strange but funny aternate ending
————————————————————————————
I stood in the field with Peeta. It was full of flowers and also a rainbow ended there.
“I’ve never seen the end of a rainbow.” I marvelled.
“Nope, me neither. Oh wait, I lied. I have now.” He told me. Just then, our first child, Sparkle Hope Melon ran up to us.
“Mommy! I picked you some flowers!” She thrust a bocquet of sweet smelling nice things at me.
“Oh yey!” Also there were cookies in the flowers. Then my little boy-Happy Kitten 9000- ran up cuddling a baby rabbit.
“Can we keep it, Mummy? Can we can we can we?” I laughed.
“Ask Daddy.”
“Daddyyyyy!” Happy Kitten begged. Peeta laughed.
“Okay, sweetie. Just in time for Christmas.”
“Yey!” The kids cheered.
“Did you miss me?” A voice said. We all spun around.
“Cinna!” Sparkle yelled. We all hurled ourselves at him. His hair was in an awesome Mohawk and he had awesome leather gloves on, which had been made entirely from grass and no animals had been hurt.
“But how did you live?” Peeta asked quietly.
“It was complex. First of all I-”
“Mommy! Can we name the rabbit Buzzleberry?”
“Of course we can, darling.” I told Happy Kitten. Cinna looked put out at first, but cheered up noticeably when Prim appeared carrying ice creams for us all.
“I thought you died too.” I asked, confused.
“No, that wasn’t a bomb. It was just a firework.” At that, some more fireworks went off in the sky. We ooh’d and ahh’d accordingly.
“Ho ho ho!” A voice boomed. We spun around.
“SANTA.” Sparkle yelled.
“Yes! It’s me! Father Christmas!” Our eyes met, and those eyes were Gale’s.
“Father Gale more like!” I laughed, and everyone laughed along too.
“I brought us all lollipops and newborn lambs.” He explained, pulling out giant wrapped bleating packages.
“This is the best birthday ever.” Cinna grinned.
And we all lived happily ever after.
The end.
YAY FOR ALTERNATIVE ENDINGS!!!!!!!!!!
(My favourite bits were “Father Gale more like!”, the leather gloves made from grass, and the children’s names. And when Cinna goes “This is the best birthday ever!” Oh Cinna! Every birthday with you is the best birthday ever!!)
Team Galeeee!!!!!!!!! I so think Suzanne ruined the entire series when Katniss ended up with Peeta. Imagine how cool it would be if Katniss and Gale, like, restarted America with their fire instead of being all boring with Peeta.l Psh. We could have evn had another book afterwards! A fourth Hunger Games! Suzanne, if you’re reading this, start the next book with “I woke up from my dream with a shudder” and have Prim be ALIVE. Stop killing off the cool people!
…. wow. Just wow.
I can see what you mean, hating the epilogue and all. But I personally found it quite….. fitting. Well, it made sense, anyway.
I can understand all the “Peeta Hating”, too. It’s usual to have the first guy and girl that appear in the series to be wanted together. People decide that they like this character, and immediately become biased over pairings. No offense intended.
I’m a bit of a “Team Peeta” person, though. I mean, Gale is cool. Peeta is cool. But personally I find Peeta, Katniss, and Gale all messed up in their own ways. And I find that well…. Gale and Katniss could’ve been together, sure, if President Snow didn’t hijack him. But unfortunately he did, and we’re landed with… this mess. Pairing wars. You get it.
What really made me hate the ending, though, was that PRIM DIED. FINNICK DIED. CINNA DIED. That made me want to cry. No offense, but I’d have preferred if… say…. well, if Gale died instead. Not because I hate him or anything, but it seems like… well, he’d be the most likely to get killed in combat, second after Katniss. But because she’s the main character, she won’t. Although a lot of trouble will be over if she was dead. No more of this “Team Peeta” and “Team Gale” nonsense.
What I don’t get is all this Peeta hating. Saying that he’s lame. Is it just because you’re biased? Not meant to be a flame, sorry. But I really don’t get it. I’m on Team Peeta (of a sort) but Gale is probably my third favorite character. I don’t hate him. I just find that Peeta is more suited for Katniss. Maybe in the way that they balance each other out, Katniss’s physical strength and Peeta’s way of turning the tides with words. But so many people compaining that he’s “useless”…. yes, in the sense that he doesn’t want to kill people. That he doesn’t want to waste life. But seriously? Not that I’m talking about you. But seeing so many Peeta flamers and whatnot has made me remember the main points of “Peeta Hating”. He’s useless. Lousy. What? Seriously?
But I can understand your ranting, though. I’ve been on teams before, and I can understand. Not like it, but understand.
OMG!!! So true, I hated that she ended up with Peeta. He has NO WILL to live, he kept telling everyone to shoot him or whatever, instead of trying to fight to continue his life. Also, he and Katniss were too lovey-dovey and waay too obvious. Gale would’ve been so much better for her since they were already best friends. Plus, Gale is awesome and cool and would NEVER force Katniss in to having children or whatever. I definitely thought she would do important things in the government, not writing books and taking care of kids. This trilogy is awesome, but Mockingjay is definitely my least favorite book out of the three.
In reading all of the post I am kind of confused. Why would Katniss end up doing something awesome in government or some other adventurous thing when, in the end, her fire was gone. PTSD does that to people. At this point in the book I believe all that Katniss really wanted was peace. Throughout the books I never got the idea that this was a life that Katniss had chosen. This was something she was forced into when she volunteered for the Hunger Games to save her sister. Katniss was never all about adventure and being a soldier. The people made her their Mockingjay, it was not as if she raised her hand and said “PICK ME” . Throughout Mockingjay she was just a person stuck in a situation with no real way out. For a person to contemplate suicide to me means that the person is tired and just wants the peace of death. For Katniss to be able to be happy with Paeta and have children to me is the best endings because it demonstrates that Katniss was able to move past the pain and trauma enough to make an attempt at life.
Oh, and Katniss was not a female to be forced into having children, if she had the children with Paeta it was because she wanted the children with Paeta.
I just finished Mockingjay at long last.
I love your review!! Hilarity. And I so agree about this movie needing to be taken away from Collins.
I don’t get it. I just DON’T get it.
How could Katniss choose Peeta over Gale? I don’t know about you, but I’m not even convinced that Peeta’s a real man. He was telling people to kill him, for crying out loud! I don’t know about you, but I am PROUD that I am able to say that I have HATED PEETA from the VERY BEGINNING. Yes, I did. Had Katniss chosen Gale, she would’ve had such a better future! Gale, a REAL man. How could a strong character like KATNISS have been demoted to the point of being forced to have babies in a corner somewhere with a freak like Peeta? HOW COULD SHE HAVE SAID YES TO THE HUNGER GAMES AGAIN?! HOW?! Collins, you have been spending WAY too much time reading the crap Myers writes. Hell, if you’re going to read something, read HARRY POTTER! At least J.K. ROWLING can actually WRITE. You killed PRIM. How could you?
I don’t get it. The series died. It died. I have lost all respect for Collins–I’m so not reading another book of hers ever AGAIN.
Sry I’m for team Peeta!!!!! Gale just kind of seems creepy to me. Why the fuck did they have to kill Prim!!!!!
I have mixed feelings about the epilouge. I am team Peeta- please don’t shoot me- but I don’t necessarily think she should have ended up with either of them, certainly not married with babies. If this wasn’t YA she could have died for the cause but I guess that’s not an option. (Ooh- maybe she could have caught on fire! Sorry, psychopathic tendencies) I sort of liked the melancholy tone of this epilouge and maybe her life would become meaningless afterwards but married with babies? Seriously? You can do better than that!
Also team Gale shippers- there’s no reason she couldn’t stay in politics with Peeta. He could make the speeches and she could make the decisions. They’d be a perfect team!
Ok, there is some serious hating for Peeta here! Why though? I don’t get it? It’s not like Katniss would have ran off with Gale and started something big in the economy or in Panem because she killed the last president, so I doubt the resent president would trust her. Also, she would get worn out and tired with Gale’s continous fire. She had fire but it left and all she wants is peace… Non of you get that it’s not SC fault for writing something good for Katniss. You don’t get that to Katniss, having a life with Peeta is a blessing and is better than a life with Gale. She even says that he’s probably kissing another pair of lips in the end. Non of you should hate Gale OR Peeta because they probably both end up with happy lives. Peeta happily with Katniss and his two children. Gale happily with HIS wife and maybe kids. You have to understand that SC made this book how it is because it was the only way to end the series without killing the main character. (I bet that would have solved alot of problems though!) So, TEAM PEETA all the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I LLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEE YOU PEETA!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, before people flame me on this, I realize that PTSD does thugs to people. (That is part of what I am ranting on)
Okay, in my opinion, the book was officially ruined when Katniss got set on fire.
After such, she becomes a total shell . Were did she go? It was like being introduced to a totally new character who, in a genius word, sucked. I just don’t understand why Suzanne Collins had to take an awesome character (and series.) Why did Cinna, Finnick and Prim have to die? Another thing- why did she have to end up with Peeta? I mean, if Gale had died it would have been better. I hate how she grows apart from Gale, and personally think she was better with him. I get that if Peeta was still alive that he would be heartbroken. My preffered ending would be that Peeta dies and Katniss decides that Gale was the person she loved all along. The only emotions I fly during Katnisss x Peeta romance scenes was annoyance. On the other hand, my favorite part of the whole book was when Katniss and Gale kiss and he tells her he loved her six months before the hunger games etc.
All in all, the ending left me unsatisfied and deppressed. Great way to ruin the series.
Erm, excuse my frequent typos.
I need therapy after reading Mockingjay! Thanks to all your comments, it helps a little. I had a sick feeling, as I started reading The Hunger Games, that this is not going to end the way I want. Part of me wishes I would have listened to that voice and not invested so much into these characters. I have never cried so hard as when Katniss goes to the woods at the end of Mockingjay. When she closes her eyes, I can’t believe I let myself have a glimmer of hope that when she opened them he would be there. I knew it was foolish – a desperate act of hope – to think that Gale would be there. There, the woods, where from the beginning was a place of freedom, happiness, and life – she was never more alive than there w/ Gale. I feel like a toddler kicking and screaming b/c I didn’t get my way – MY Katniss would have CHOSEN Gale, not settle for a normal life w/ Peeta! No offense, Peeta’s a good guy, but Katniss needs the fire, the woods, Gale. I guess everything that happened (which was a whole lot of misery and pretty much the depths of hell) to Katniss extinguished her flame. She was void of any spark of emotion. I guess that consoles me in a way…In the end, she was no longer the girl on fire, no longer Katniss. The games, the war, the death left her empty. She went into the fire and never returned.
Now that I get that off my chest, I feel a bit better!
Oh I totally agree.
I mean really?
I hated the way katniss is such a mess in mocking jay. And then she needs some dough boys kisses to fix her.
I mean really?!?!? How preschool is kiss it make it better.
I am doing just as you say and ignoring everything that happens after killing coin.
I wish peeta was dead I mean who recovers from an unrecoverable thing?
And I mean no one likes peeta! He’s a loser who goes well w hummus. I don’t even like hummus.
When you google gale you get a bunch of I hated mocking jay and I love love live gale. Google peter and you get this… Hate mail.
I feel bad for gale bc he like gives her life for katniss who is like messed up and then she’s like… I give up. I pick the loser. Buhbye best friend I hate you I guess. Everything in life was stupid so I’m killing my life by going w peeta.
It woulda been awesome w gale. I’m not liking katniss….
I think the movie directors have to ignore scollins and the book and do their thing…GALE
And the movie would be awesome. Who cares if people say they didn’t stick to the book… It would be a killer movie and GALE would make it
GALE GALE GALE
Ok, I’ve said it before but I’d like to revisit it again…
Put aside Gale vs. Peeta for just a second (and while I won’t choose a side – I agree the ending still sucked! Talk about a major personality change in Katniss!).
All I want to discuss is what happens when everyone moves to the tunnels/sewers. Can ANYONE tell me the point of that bit of plot? Because as far as plot advancement – this does NOTHING. All Collins achieves by this is killing off characters at random – that’s it! Has no one else noticed this? It’s a big chunk of the book and in the end it has zero bearing on the plot, outcome, etc. It was pointless! It was like Collins thought, “Hmm…I really need a random way to kill off a bunch of people with no other plot advancement.” It nearly drove me crazy! The characters (and the reader) goes through all this drama and it leads nowhere….that’s just bad writing.
I understand no ending is going to satisfy everyone but the WHOLE book, not just the end, feels like it was rushed and not well thought out. Awful wrap-up to an otherwise stellar series.
I’ve been searching for a word, or something, to explain how I feel after finishing Mockingjay, and someone wrote somewhere – Gale was stolen from us! After having time to think about this, Suzanne Colllins stole many of the characters from us, even Katniss herself. Katniss didn’t even feel like the same character at the end. I invested a lot into these characters, and in the end they didn’t even seem like the same people, except maybe Peeta. Maybe that is what Collins was trying to get across – war damges us beyond recognition and your left feeling empty, angry, and w/ a feeling of injustice b/c that is how I feel after reading this series.
When I finished, I was heartbroken and thought what a great series. But the more I’ve had time to ponder everything, I’m just annoyed. Really, she ends up w/ dough boy; she just goes through these motions of living; Gale and her just end. I liked Peeta, but now I find him just annoying…I love you Katniss, I’ve always loved you, real or not real …blah, blah, blah. For me, someone who challenges me, gets me fired up is a true soul mate in life, and that was Gale.
Did Collins even realize what a great character she had in Gale? As Mockingjay went on, it kind of felt like she was writing things and said at certain parts “oh yeah, I forgot about Gale. I better add something about him here”. She kind of just faded him out – “some fancy job in District 2, kissing another girls lips” – that’s just wrong. I mean, come on, in the first 2 books she makes us believe they were these inseparable friends who spent hours upon hours in the woods together. Then in Mockingjay, they are barely together at District 13. It seems to me, 2 friends who spent pretty much every minute together for 5 years would have spent most of their time together in 13.
Like I said, I loved the series initially, but after much thought Mockingjay just left me annoyed – a waste of great characters!
well said, karen! that’s a great way to put it… the characters were definitely stolen from us. NOBODY LIKES SHOPLIFTERS, SUZANNE!
I love how almost 6 mos later this is still the most popular topic on FYA. MOCKINGJAY IS TOTES SERIOUS BUSINESS, Y’ALL.
You’re right. We’re all like still in shock LOL
totally agree with you. I was like…yeah sure Gale left…just like that. WTF? Like being best friends for like 5 years wasn’t such a big deal. Peeta was screwed up, he should have ended with Delly or some shit. Thank you for sharing.
I didn’t really care who she ended up with in the end until I read this, and you all are right she should have gotten Gale her life would have gotten so much better he would have pulled her out of her deppression… with that aside, I could live with Cinna and Finnicks death even though I loved him, but when Prim died I couldn’t stand it! I really should have seen it comming though, her name 1/a lot got pulled and after that she kept barely cheating death. I would have liked it better if anyone died over Prim because I felt like that was the point, in fact I might have even liked it better if Katniss died protecting her.
i respectfully disagree. i would not say that the point of the story was to show that people could be saved through selfless acts of heroes (katniss saving prim). you’re right that prim kept escaping death. it’s really quite amazing how many times katniss did save her sister. and then, in the end, lots of people who you would have imagined to live (prim, madge, cinna) didn’t, and lots of people who you would have thought will die (katniss, peeta, gale), didn’t. but for all the recent hate i’ve seen about suzanne collins, the woman told a story that could almost happen. things don’t happen like we wish them to, and innocent people die who shouldn’t have. and, to me, that was collins’ point. that people die in wars. the good people, and the bad. and then when that happens, we’re left more broken then before, and it takes a long time to be less broken. collins got that, and wrote it. and i remain impressed for her doing so.
Well said!! Prim was the whole point of everything anyways. I mean Cinna, ok life’s hard..Finnick…damn! this is pure angst, but then the whole “and then the rest of the parachutes go off..” immediately followed by “Real or not real?” You start thinking that this is reeaaaaallly senseless. I mean, even if her mother dying would have been much more manageable .
wow, can’t believe that. I’m not the only one who is frustrated by that ending!! I’m not alone, what a relief. The first books were awesome, but the third messed the whole thing up. It left a bitter taste and stained it all for me. I find that extremely sad.
that damned baker xD never liked him much.
I like that Peeta ended up with Katniss, because to say that her life is unfulfilled is to say what kind of fulfillment she wants. She was VERY reluctant to be the Mockingjay, or any sort of public figure, and she couldn’t have gone back to anything like that anyway after assassinating Coin. The fact that she is a broken shell is tragic, but I think that seeing the world return to a semblance of decency, where children can be children, is all the fulfillment she needs.
I guess in a way they succeeded, and it begins to feel like it was worth it, because they created a better world – their children will never know the horror of the Hunger Games (isn’t there a line that basically says that in the epilogue?), and nor will hundreds of other children. I mean, because of how much she lost, it would difficult for Katniss to see at first, and yeah she’s totally fucked up from everything she went through… I’ve stopped making sense, haven’t I?
I think, basically, that the fact that Katniss had children just reaffirms the fact that Panem is now a safer world, and no one will ever have to go what she went through again. Which is sort of lovely. In a horrible, soul-destroying way.
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